"and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." Shantih.

Thursday, January 1, 2015

A Community Called Greenwyche

I live in a 1000 household(3,000 person) upper
middle class neighborhood that is well delineated, interconnected through
volunteer activities, school issues, and church attendance.We are as close to bulletproof as a community
can be.But I can envision an abrupt change in defense contract dollars that would put large numbers of our fellow citizens out of work. Fewer jobs impacts mortgage payments and lots of people would move to find better opportunities. I have thought that it would be useful to
construct a shadow “government” neighborhood network based on the community
pool recreation center.It was created
in 1962 to avoid “diversity” but many neighbors (those with
children) belong.It is easier to pay
$350/summer for a large pool and swim team than try and build your own.A financial crisis like 2008 will expose the greatest problem going
forward, the level of unencumbered
home ownership. If the financial system
seizes up and job loss spreads,the
middle class is in danger of losing their home.We are an
old and settledneighborhood but I just
don’t know how overextended everybody is—I use lots of remodeling and new fancy
cars as a negative indicator of indebtedness.Everybody looks a lot wealthier than me and perhaps they are.

There are really two
important issues to address with financial collapse or electricity grid collapse:Security
and food.Community meetings that gradually focus on issues of sustainability are conceivable.The key is to think local community WORK rather than passive dependency on distant elected officials. What can a bankrupt local government
offer?The problem will be converting to a
neighborhood state of mind when your $86,000 bread has been buttered from a
government contract.As those fail at
varying intervals we would need to keep the employed fortunates,engaged and sustaining the neighborhood.
Those with “income” cannot go it alone or try and support everyone but we should be mature enough to avoid a Zombie Apocalypse. I do wonder when the
time is right to push for more local autonomy. A Dow stock crash would be a wake up call so people
could see there was a problem—perhaps local efforts could begin. I find my suburbia
comforting.We had a very pleasant
mini-crash in 2011 when a tornado took out the power for 5 days.Without TV and electronic devices we gathered
as neighbors to cook up the food defrosting in freezers and talked about
whatever.The temps were pleasant and a
car could take you 30miles away to go to a store if necessary.I thought the template was encouraging.Essentially it was a 5
day vacation.Grocery stores were
emptied, gas stations could only pump if they went to the trouble to bring in a
generator and then people got mad if they raised prices on their gas.You had to pay with cash.At the end the generators began to disturb
the peacefulnessand then the power
returned.A longer collapse scenario
will not be so cheerful but I am counting on 5 days without security or hunger
issues to institute and declare local autonomy.Let the police work their magic in other neighborhoods.We will go it alone. But we would need some serious preparation.